Rebels of the East : Unrest in Thailand

Mahatma Gandhi once famously said:

“Evolution of democracy is not possible if we are not prepared to hear the other side”.

Democracy is a form of government that attempts to provide equal changes and chances to one and all. Participation of every individual is a key feature, which ensures equality and decreases the probability of injustice. Equality is the essence of democracy, but what good is a democracy that limits the rights of common people and put a blind eye on many sections of the society? Similar situation is faced by the people of Thailand. Let us take a look on the ongoing protests in Thailand that is witnessing a huge unrest among its youth and go through a brief history of the country.

Thailand is a Southeast-Asian country located in Indo-Chinese peninsula that shares border with Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia. It is bound by Gulf of Thailand in south and by Andaman Sea in the west. The national capital and the largest city of the country, Bangkok is among the most visited cities in the world. Although Thailand is a constitutional monarchy, the king (or the prince) holds very little administrative power. Head of country is the prince, but the head of government is elected, at least they claim that. This is the reason Thailand is called a constitutional monarchy governed by a parliamentary democracy.

The current protests are underway mainly because of the failure of the governing outlet in providing a righteous and just democratic environment. The economic crisis is also a factor of great influence. The youths of the nation are leaving their homes and marching on the streets to remind the governing body of their failures.

The main demands put forth by the protesters are:

• Resignation of the Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.
• Dissolution of the current parliament. (‘elected’ in 2019)
• Rewrite the constitution. (written in 2017 during the militaryrule)
• Put an end to the intimidation of activists.

Protests, even in the middle of national emergency, are carried out in full swings. Many major cities saw glimpse of protests. Last week 3000 individuals gathered at Bangkok’s Democracy monument to protest. Many protestors were put under custody, were dragged out from their homes, and were mistreated by military personnels. One man was jailed with an excuse that he was wearing a t-shirt that insulted the prince. The text written on the t-shirt was “I have lost all faith in Monarchy”. As stated earlier, prince does not possesses much power, but anything against crown is seen as a serious crime. This type of governance can be given many names, but democracy is definitely not one of them. Let us see how the current government came into power.

Democracy set foot in Thailand in 1932, when absolute monarchy was preceded by constitutional monarchy as a result of revolution. From that point, Thailand set its course for a rollercoaster ride in terms of government. Since 1932, the country saw 17 military coups d’état. The last coup took place in 2014, when the contemporaneous Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinavatra (first female head of government) was removed from her office in accordance with the ruling of constitutional court of Thailand, on the charges of abuse of power. An interim government was formed, but was soon abolished by military. This coup d’état was orchestrated by the military general Prayut Chan-o-cha, who overtook as the head of the country. This ‘Junta’ assured commoners that democracy will soon be restored.

‘Junta’ is a form of government that come in power by forcefully and illegally removing the previous governing body.

General elections were finally conducted after 5 years in 2019. Pheu Thai party won more seats than the party that backed General Chan-o-cha. By the way, this is the same party to which Yingluck Shinavatra belonged. But still, it was not enough. Actually Thailand, just like India, has a bicameral governing system. A bicameral government is a government that operates on two different levels/houses/chambers/assemblies. In Thailand, these two assemblies are called Senate and the House of Representatives. House of representatives consists of 500 seats, which are filled by the results of general elections. But the 250 seats of the Senate are completely filled in with the members hand-picked by military itself. So, no matter how many seats you win in general elections, the government will only be formed if the military is ok with it. Of course, these rules were specifically framed by the military in the constitution written in 2017.

People, as shown in the above image, are using the 3 finger salute gesture in protests. These gestures were inspired by the Hollywood movie series 'Hunger Games'. In response, the government banned the release of latest movie in Thailand.

By now you may have a picture of the situation of this heritage-rich country, where the youth is forced to stand up for something that we, people who live in truly-democratic countries like India, take as granted. Allow me to end this article with a quote of famous freedom fighter and state chancellor of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi,

“Democracy is when the people keep a government in check.”

Hope you learnt something new today….

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